This MGM box-set brings together five of the six Pink Panther movies made by Peter Sellers for director Blake Edwards.

The third movie in the sequence, the excellent Return of the Pink Panther, is missing. Rights are held by another company.

But here we we have the acceptably entertaining warm-up, The Pink Panther, and then the totally wonderful and unexpected sequel, A Shot in the Dark, adapted from a Broadway play. The play had nothing to do with Clouseau at all. Hard to believe when you see the finished product.

Next come two other great outings along the Panther trail, The Pink Panther Strikes Again and Revenge of the Pink Panther. Rich material for all lovers of farce, slapstick and Sellers.

Sadly, this string of movies concludes with the 1982 fiasco Trail of the Pink Panther, an attempt by Blake Edwards to make a Panther movie from old bits cobbled together, two years after his star had died. Perhaps someone forgot to phone Edwards with the news - Edwards and Sellers never really got on well together.

And there we have it. Despite a comparatively tentative opening and truly hideous close, the Pink Panther series is still a stupidly stupendous cycle. It brings together some of the finest clowning ever put to screen by the consummate, great British actor Peter Sellers. For decades to come it will continue to make us laugh.

But wait, there's more than just the movies. No, not a dozen steak-knives - but a sixth bonus disc crammed with luscious (if occasionally repetitive) special features.

The first special features in fact come with the first disc, in the form of a director's audio commentary from Blake Edwards, plus an optional subtitle trivia track with 1001 facts you did and didn't want to know about the Panther movies. And each movie-disc has the original theatrical trailer.

Then the sixth disc brings us more than three hours of additional features, on top of the 495-minute running length of the movies.

We get a very respectable 51-minute American documentary, The Unknown Peter Sellers, featuring interviews with the likes of Alexander Walker (respected British film-critic), Shirley Maclaine (who felt a chill in her body as Sellers died, on the other side of the world - dear Shirley!), Michael Palin and Harry Secombe, the stoutest of the original Goons. It doesn't try to paint the grossest 'selfish, tortured genius' that some recent appraisals have; it concentrates, quite rightly, more on his topsy-turvy career and is packed with rare film-clips. This is a strong offering.

There's a new The Pink Panther Story documentary which runs for 29 minutes. After you've heard Blake Edwards' audio commentary and read the trivia track, there's no real need for this bland and predictable fare.

Then there's yet another 'behind the scenes'-style documentary from 1978, entitled That's Panthertainment, a look at the series but really centred on the launch of Revenge of the Pink Panther. As well as some great candid interviews, it includes footage of the luxury premiere for the movie, for which Edwards flew out more than 300 freeloaders (VIPs and press) to a luxury resort in Hawaii. This gives us one of the truly great media interviews, conducted between Steve Martin and an interviewer who unfortunately wasn't well-connected enough to actually get to see the movie...

Steve Martin: Peter Sellers has always been one of my idols.

Interviewer: Peter Sellers! Is he in this movie?

Steve: He plays the role of the Panther. I guess he immortalises that. And whoever plays Inspector Clouseau is great.

Moving right along, we get a moderately interesting 11-minute featurette about the creation of the Panther cartoon series, Behind the Feline.

Then a menu screen headed The Commercial Peter Sellers gives us three ads Sellers made for TWA Airlines at a pretty desperate time in his career, plus three ads made right at the end of his career for Barclay's Bank. He just couldn't say no to one million pounds. He sold out... not like you or me, folks. And there's quite an entertaining 'Behind the Scenes' featurette made about the filming of the TWA commercials for their staff.

To round out our Pink Panther saga, we finish with six vintage cinema cartoons, all in full screen. Five feature the Pink Panther cartoon character; the sixth features Inspector Clouseau. The first cartoon is the very first Pink Panther cartoon made, the famous Oscar-winning Pink Phink. Colours are somewhat faded and there are quite a few flecks, but the historical value is there. The film-quality improves as we move down the menu.

To conclude (finally!), three of the five movies here are absolutely wondrous, outrageous exercises in non-stop comedy, and they also immortalise one of the screen's classic creations - our beloved bumbling Inspector Clouseau. Let's all raise a glass and toast Peter Ustinov for pulling out of the role just days before shooting was due to start.

Another of the flicks (the very first) is certainly very passable entertainment, even if the great Inspector Clouseau has yet to really hit his stride. Only the fifth movie is a real dog.

That's a pretty good outcome for the box-set. Buy it.